Digimon 2250: Witch Hunt
by Team-Claw
Summary: Year 2250. A war to purge Earth of all Artifical Intelligence has begun, which includes the Digimon, their world and thier supporters...


There once was a fanfic author who loved to write. He liked Digimon Adventure  
and Digimon 02, but found that he could do much better than the creators of  
Tamers and Frontier. So he stopped watching altogether. Instead, he decided  
to take the path, perhaps slightly over-travelled, by others in their many  
spinoffs of Digimon. Already he was working on a Dark Digidestined saga with  
two other writers, but that was going at snail's pace, a good three seasons  
behind schedule.  
  
While waiting for the next chapter to be completed by his friends, this writer  
came up with an inspiration. Since he'd liked Digimon Adventure and 02 so   
much, he might as well continue its story line somehow. He tried thinking of  
the next generation, but that was already done by several other authors who  
beat him to it.  
  
But what if he moved forward in time a century or two? What would things be  
like in the real and Digital worlds then? Perhaps there would be a war, or  
an initial conflict, that began a dividing rift between human and Digimon in  
general, causing Digidestined to become outcasts. Or perhaps society and its  
politics viewed Digidestined and Digimon to be enemies, and anyone allied or  
suspicious of activities with Digimon would be persecuted?  
  
History often repeats itself. This is true. One significantly vital even could  
start a whole train of others, like ripples in a pond, spreading out and  
increasing in magnitude until everything began going out of hand...and the  
events began to become self-destructive in such a way that a single nudge in  
the right place would send the world cascading down into a deep chaos?  
  
Grab onto something secured--it's going to be a rough ride.  
  
--=Digimon Adventure 2250=--  
-=Witch Hunt=-  
-=By Backslash Interface=-  
  
Neither one nor eight warriors have the power  
To tame the ignorant's destructive spell  
But only hidden peace locked, praying for a miracle.  
Ancient powers, when combined  
Will awaken it from its deep slumber.  
Firey Sun, Lighting Storm  
Within these passed down the key  
Find it, and with the golden steel  
Awaken peace and restore the balance once again.  
  
-------Prolouge-------  
  
A rat scuttled across one side of the sewer, attracted towards the faint light  
that cast distorted shadows on the concaved metallic wall. The rat's ears  
twitched at the sound of soft, murmuring voices, wondering who were these  
creatures that had quietly gathered in its territory. Suddenly, a thick and  
long something smashed down near the rat with a force that could have easily  
broken its back in two. Startled, the rat gave a squeak of surprise and darted  
back into the shadows where it had come.  
  
The shadows tensed as a unit, as if bracing for an unexpected blow or   
preparing to bolt, then relaxed slightly when none came. The owner of the  
thick, long thing--a reptillian tail--thudded it against the ground another  
time for good measure.  
  
"Streak. Cut that out," said a boy, his whole body shrouded in darkness save  
for his face, faintly illuminated by a torch. Streak gave a sheepish and   
toothy smile as he lifted his tail off the ground obediently.  
  
"Try not to be so hard on him," and older woman said, looking briefly away  
from the huddled discussion. "We're all nervous, human or Digimon."  
  
"Where on Earth is Hikaru?" A man with matted hair muttered to himself in  
fustration, running a hand through his hair. "He's never this late, even in  
bad circumstances, and he usually warns us if he can't turn up."  
  
"I wouldn't worry too much about Motomiya-san," a squat oversized tadpole with  
a childlike voice said confidently. "It's like you said, Motomiya-san always  
manages to squeeze out of trouble."  
  
"Shhh! Everyone quiet! Someone's coming."  
  
The faint light sources winked out, plunging the sewer into pitch black. A  
soft scuttling noise announced of the group's hurried scramble for hiding  
places. Silence fell for a few seconds, then the faint thudding of footsteps  
echoed through the sewer. A beam of light cut a clear, visible path through  
the sewer, binked thrice, then shut off once again.  
  
"Hikaru!" The woman said, poking her head out of her makeshift hiding place.  
"It's okay, everyone, it's just--"  
  
"Keep your voice down," a male voice whispered urgently. "I could hear all of  
you from way over here. Do you want the Corps down on our heads?"  
  
The group began to emerge from their hiding places even as the woman muttered  
a quick apollogy. Hikaru frowned at the ragtag group as he approached, the  
faint light from one of the group's lightballs reflecting off his rust-colored  
eyes. The boy seemed amazed.  
  
"Wow, you really are Motomiya-san!" He whispered in awe. Hikaru, though angry,  
couldn't help smiling a bit at the boy's admiration.  
  
"Can you all be a bit more careful next time? I saw all of you when I was  
coming over. If I were a patrolman, you'd all be dead or arrested by now."  
Hikaru paused briefly, letting that sink in before continuing. "Let's get  
down to business. Risako?"  
  
Risako activated her watch-sized computer with a press of a button, displaying  
a translucent screen. Its data reflected off her eyes and illuminated her face  
with an eerie green shade. "Intelligence reports state the Corps have suddenly  
hired a few dozen computer programmers and hackers. They've also had a massive  
computer upgrade in the pass week, and a new organization calling themselves  
Deji-Hakeru has surfaced from that. The Corps are cooking up something, yet  
we haven't figured out what."  
  
"Whatever it is, it's not good news," the matted-haired man said with a sigh.  
  
"Maybe they're tryin' to build a trackin' system?" Someone suggested. Risako  
peered behind Hikaru to locate the source of the voice, which happened to  
come from a child no older than nine. A cat-sized winged reptile perched  
awkwardly on the child's head.  
  
"You brought Alex with you?" Risako asked in disbelief.  
  
"Alex and Hoshi wanted to come. Couldn't do anything about it," Hikaru said   
with a shrug. "They snuck out."  
  
"The great Motomiya can't stop his kid from sneaking outta the house," teased  
Streak with a giggle, smaking his tail against the ground.  
  
"Daddy doesn't mind," Alex defended.  
  
"Alex...does have a point about the enhanced radar. I mean, we've set a record  
this month for least Digidestined caught, all thanks to Ishida's Digivice  
cloak. It's only natural for the Corps to catch on--"  
  
A bright beam shone breifly through the tunnel onto Hikaru's face, causing the  
man to snap his eyes shut and jerk his head back. Like a warning beacon, the  
beam blinked twice, then cut off. Almost immediately, the group began to   
panic.  
  
"Patrol Corps!" The matted-haired man hissed. "Shimatta."  
  
"Seven minutes and twenty-six seconds," remaked Streak, clicking an imaginary  
stopwatch. "They're getting shabby." A stern look from his partner silenced  
him.  
  
Already several searchlight beams and shouts confirmed the message as the  
unlucky lookout down the sewer was ambushed. The matted-haired man hesitated  
before tearing towards the direction of the disturbance.  
  
"Kazeyu!" Hikaru whispered fiercely. "What the heck are you doing? Come back!"  
  
"My partner's down there, Hikaru!" The man continued to run.  
  
Hikaru swore. "Risako, get everyone out of here. I'll back up Kazeyu. Alex?"  
  
The forementioned child looked up. "Hai?"  
  
"Take care of this." Hikaru reached into his pocket and tossed and object to  
his child, who caught it. Alex squinted at it.  
  
"But--"  
  
"Don't argue. Kazeyu's going to get himself killed if I don't stop him. Go on,  
follow Risako. That means you and Hoshi."  
  
Risako and her Otamamon ushered Alex away while the boy and Streak followed  
behind. Hikaru turned and ran towards the direction Kazeyu had gone, already  
sounds of a violent struggle coming from that area.  
  
Once they had actually started running, Alex didn't need to be told to go  
faster. He almost ran straight into Risako's back when the older woman stopped  
suddenly. Ahead of them, the beams from several flashlights bounched off the  
walls.  
  
"Kuso!" Muttered the boy. Alex looked around himself, almost dumping the  
passenger dragon off his head. There had to be some other way out of the  
sewer...up. Manholes went into the ground to the sewer, so...  
  
"Up! We have to go up!" Alex exclaimed, pointing to several rungs embedded in  
the sewer's wall. Risako and the boy looked at the ladder.  
  
"Good. Up the ladder, you two. I'll cover you."  
  
Alex shot up the ladder first, Hoshi taking flight on his batlike ear-wings.   
Next came Streak, and when the boy finally got on the ladder, the Corps were   
on top of Risako. The Otamamon shot fort a barrage of bubbles from its mouth,   
hoping to drive the patrolmen back.  
  
With the combined effort of Alex, Hoshi and Streak, they managed to push the  
manhole cover aside. Alex hauled himself out of the manhole and helped Streak  
up. When he stuck his hand down to help the boy, he suddenly realized that  
the boy wasn't there.  
  
"Where'd he go?" Alex asked himself, trying to see what was going on in the  
churning chaos below. Hoshi glanced down over Alex's shoulder just in time to  
see the flash of a gun's barrel. He shoved Alex aside with all the strength  
he could muster.  
  
BANG!  
  
Alex sprawled onto his side with the little reptile on top of him. There was  
a twang of metal hitting metal as the shot glanced off something. Streak took  
this time to peer over the manhole.  
  
"Carl? Carl!" Streak yelled down the manhole, hoping his Digidestined would  
answer.  
  
BANG! BANG!  
  
Two comet-like projectiles shot out of the manhole and pierced Streak's prone  
upper body. With a howl, the Digimon toppled over and would've fallen into the  
manhole had he not burst into digital data fragments. Alex lay where he had  
sprawled, too shocked to move.  
  
"Com'on, Alex!" Hoshi commanded, grabbing one of the boy's arms and pulling  
him as hard as any cat-sized beast could. "We gotta get outta here!"  
  
That got Alex moving. Scrambling, the child got to his feet, activating his  
roller-blade like boots as he did so. Together, he and his odd-looking buddy  
fled the scene of chaos.  
  
-----  
  
The body of Riskao lay face down in the sewage, bobbing slowly up and down to  
the movement of the filty water. One patrolman, a square-jawed man with cruel  
eyes, glared at his subordinate comerade.  
  
"How many times must I stress the need to reel them in alive?" He snarled  
angrily. "In time, she and the two others may have revealled valuable  
information."  
  
"They wouldn't have, even if you killed them," Carl hissed. The boy sported  
several ugly brusies and cuts and was held down by two Corps. "You'd just be  
wasting your time."  
  
"You hold your superiors and partners-in-crime in high esteen, don't you," the  
patrolman sneered. He squatted so that he and the boy were more or less eye  
level. "You're just a kid, whether you like it or not. I can let you go or  
hand you over for questioning. Believe me, the Corps have equipment that will  
make you wish you'd never been born. Of course, if you co-operate, things will  
go a lot better for both of us."  
  
The boy answered this with a wad of well-aimed spit at the patrolman's left  
eye, followed by a long string of curses a normal teenage boy his age wouldn't  
use all that frequently. "It doesn't matter what you do to me," Carl snarled  
indignantly, "for every one of us you strike down, more will take our place.  
You can't stop the Resistance."  
  
With dead calm the patrolman wiped the spit from his eye. "Strong words;  
however, they're just words. And words can't stop the fall of a rebellion, no  
matter how organized or powerful. You know just as well as I it's only a  
matter of time before it dies, along with all of you miserable lot."  
  
Ignoring the new string of curses from the indignant boy, the patrolman   
glanced at his subordinates. "To the Detention HQ. We'll just have to persuade  
this AI-loving brat who's boss."  
  
-----  
  
"I think we lost them," Alex said as he peered out from behind an alleyway  
wall. The young boy and Hoshi were both grasping for breath. It seemed like  
the Corps were everywhere, even at this late hour. The whole district must be  
on alert for Digidestined. Even after following his father around for two to  
three years, Alex was amazed by the Corps' efficiency. They made it hard for   
anyone to keep a step ahead of them.  
  
"I believe tryin' to head home's out of a question," panted Hoshi, resting his  
aching batlike wings which grew from his head, above his earlobes. Alex's  
little companion was a small bright red cat-sized dragon with blue markings  
and clear blue eyes.  
  
"Master of the obvious," Alex teased, leaning against the smooth, cool wall.  
He had turned nine only a month ago, but he'd seen much more than a typical  
kid his age of the world. It also seemed that the boy had develped a maddening  
sense of cynicallisim within that month that Hoshi was only staring to get  
used to.  
  
"What do we do now, Alex?" Hoshi shifted so that he looked down at Alex's face  
in an upside-down fasion. Alex tilted his head upwards slightly to see the  
reptile's face, almost dumping Hoshi off his head.  
  
"I'm out of ideas. First thing must be to get some shelter--I don't care   
where. If we stay out here the Corps'll get us."  
  
"I'm with ya."  
  
"Daddy had better be okay." Alex sighed.  
  
"Hey, are you worryin' down there?" Hoshi tapped his partner's head. "It's  
not gonna do any good, ya'know."  
  
"Even though I'm the one who said that first, I can't help it sometimes. Call  
it a weakness." Alex sighed. "What the heck did I do in my last life to get  
stuck in this?"  
  
"I donno," shrugged the reptile. Alex turned and hit his head against the wall  
in despair.  
  
What happened next was beyond their wildest imaginations. The ground   
dissapeared beneath Alex's feet and he was falling before he could utter a  
single syllable. He landed with a thump on his behind in a dimly lit room...  
at gunpoint.  
  
"Don't move," the holder of the firearm growled. Alex and Hoshi had no choice  
but to comply. "How did you get in?"  
  
"I...we...fell through--" Alex stammered.  
  
"Wait. We? Who's this other guy?"  
  
Hoshi obediently raised a clawed paw in the air, At that, the gunman reached  
over and turned on the lights, causing Alex and Hoshi to squint painfully at  
the increased brightness.  
  
"You two are partners? Wait, I know you. You're Motomiya's kid!" Putting away  
his gun, the man relaxed. "Sorry about that. I'm Hiroki Kenichi, a friend of  
your father. What are you doing here?"  
  
"Well..." Alex was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. "Corps ambushed  
a meeting. Dad told me to run for it."  
  
"The Corps are all over the place, so we can't go home," Hoshi added.  
  
"Judging from the hubbub of activity around the district, they won't be   
leaving soon," Hiroki said. "Also, activating a Digiport'll only send them on  
you in a matter of seconds." The man got up and walked to the other end of the  
room to a small refrigerating unit in the corner. "Are you thirsty?"  
  
"Hai," Alex and Hoshi chorused. Reaching into the fridge, Hiroki pulled out  
two cans of soda and a beer, shutting the fridge door with his foot.  
  
"Kenichi-san, who's that Hagurumon?" Hoshi asked, pointing to the Digimon  
sleeping on Hiroki's computer. Hiroki handed Alex and Hoshi their drinks and  
sat down, facing the Digimon in question.  
  
"That's Circuit." Hiroki opened his can of beer and drank it. "He was my son's  
Digimon partner. I'm not a Digidestined; nobody in my family ever has been.  
I didn't care about that until Izawa's campain against Digidestined started,  
when my son joined and became one of the first members of your father's  
Resistance." Hiroki sighed and took another swig. "If he'd been a bit more  
careful, he'd still be alive.  
  
"After he died, I decided to continue fighting for what my son had. I spend  
almost all my time here, helping various Digidestined escape to places besides  
the Digiworld, because that isn't always possible. You two came to the right  
place, by fate or design."  
  
"So you mean you can find some other place for me and Hoshi to stay until dad  
can come for me?" Alex asked.  
  
"Exactly. Tell me, kid, do you have any stomach for space?"  
  
"That far?" Alex frowned in thought.  
  
"That's the one place Corps haven't swarmed all over. Compaired to here,  
Space Stations' security is pretty lax because no Digidestined has ever been  
found there. You can stay there until your father comes to get you or   
something like that. What do you say?"  
  
Alex shrugged. "Sure."  
  
"Better get working, then," Hiroki said, turning to his computer and   
activating a few screens, each displaying important information. Hiroki began  
typing rapidly, entering Alex's form for entry to the space station.  
  
"You know," he said while he typed, "the last time I met Hikaru, he told me  
he had two daughters. He never mentioned you."  
  
"He did, actually," Alex said. "I'm the older one."  
  
There was a surprised pause before Hiroki spoke, a bit embarrased. "Oh.   
Gomen."  
  
"It's okay, people do that all the time," Alex said. "It works pretty well as  
a coverup."  
  
"You've got a point there. Let's see...can't have you hunted down because of  
your last name, Motomiya...let's change it to Ichiban, then. What's your   
name?"  
  
"Alex. That's what everyone calls me."  
  
"Okay, Alex-chan. The next shuttle to the Space Station doesn't leave until  
5:30 in the morning. That gives us three hours to prepare. I'll fill in the  
necessary forms and such and say you're my nephew transferring to space. You  
have to find a bag to pack some belongings in, and to carry your partner.  
What's his name, by the way?"  
  
"I'm Hoshi, and right now I wanna sleep." The reptile yawned hugely, displaying  
his many teeth.  
  
Hiroki chuckled. "Indeed. Why don't you help your partner pack? We've all got  
a long night ahead."  
  
---------- 


End file.
